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Reconstructing the Point

Dr. Claire Andrade Watkins on the Fox Point Cape Verdean story
by Sophie Kasakove
April 30, 2017

Map of Providence's Fox Point neighborhood in the 1950s, then home to the Cape Verdean community (courtesy of "Hi Neighbor").

Dr. Andrade-Watkins with her parents in their home on Planet Street (courtesy of "Hi Neighbor").

South Main Street, the main commercial center of the Cape Verdean community, 1953 (courtesy of "Hi Neighbor").

Dr. Claire Andrade-Watkins is a professor of film and Africana Studies at Emerson College. Dr. Andrade-Watkins is also a Brown University Visiting Scholar at the Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice and a Distinguished Community Practitioner and Senior Fellow at the Swearer Center. Her films work to reconstruct the often neglected story of Fox Point Cape Verdean community — its success, displacement, and ultimate survival. Her work challenges us to confront the role Brown University has played in Cape Verdean displacement and to begin building a sustainable conversation around this history, founded on values of equivalency and mutual respect.